Infectious Disease Experts
Basmattee Boodram Heading link
Expert on: Â Hepatitis C.
Basmattee Boodram is an expert in the structural factors (e.g., social networks, geography, stigma, social norms) driving hepatitis C infection. Her research focuses on addressing barriers to treatment uptake and developing computational models to discover effective strategies for hepatitis C elimination in U.S.
Mark Dworkin Heading link
Expert on: Â HIV medication adherence.
Dr. Mark Dworkin is an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist currently leading a National Institutes of Health funded randomized clinical trial testing a mobile phone app intervention designed for young African American men who have sex with men that features a human avatar that teaches and motivates. Other recent research work has involved studying electronic adherence monitoring as an intervention for young African American men who have sex with men and understanding barriers to medication adherence in female sex workers living with HIV in Hyderabad, India. Other interests include public health surveillance of infectious diseases, outbreak investigation, and food poisoning prevention.
John Herrmann Heading link
Expert on: infectious diseases carried by animals.
John Herrmann is an expert in infectious diseases, primarily those that are transmitted by arthropod vectors. He has extensive experience in the functional exercises to assess the readiness of state ad local health departments in their responses to food-borne illnesses. He has also researched the spatial and temporal epidemiology of tick-borne illnesses in Illinois, dogs as sentinels for human cases of blastomycosis, and the impact of climate change on vector range distribution.His teaching interests include Epidemiology in Action (PubH 420).
Mary Ellen Mackesy-Amiti Heading link
Expert on: HIV and hepatitis C among injection drug users
Mary Ellen Mackesy-Amiti studies risky behavior among people who inject drugs, and transmission of HIV and hepatitis C in this population. She is developing research that will employ ecological momentary assessment using mobile phones to study risk behavior in this population.
Supriya Mehta Heading link
Expert on: sexually transmitted infections
Globally, an estimated 350 million sexually transmitted infections (STI) occur each year. Supriya Mehta’s research focuses on reducing STI and vaginal and penile microbiome dysbiosis as co-factors. Her novel translational research focuses on behaviorally mediated or modified aspects of microbiome health at the population level, for broader impact. She has evaluated the effect of voluntary medical male circumcision on STIs, genital microbiome in relation to BV and genital herpes and the effects of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis on STI incidence among men who have sex with men. She also collaborates with the Chicago Department of Public Health, having assessed provider adherence to treatment guidelines, enhanced gonorrhea surveillance and used of Google Trends to predict STIs.
Leslie Williams Heading link
Expert on: HIV testing interventions and treatment-as-prevention interventions; HIV-related stigma; HIV prevention and injection norms among people who use drugs
Dr. Leslie D. Williams conducts research assessing the efficacy of network-based HIV testing and treatment-as-prevention interventions. She is currently investigating the ability of a network-based intervention to reduce HIV-related stigma and increase HIV-related social support. Dr. Williams has computed annual estimates of HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs, among men who have sex with men, and among heterosexuals, for each of the 89 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), for a 22 year period; and estimates for race/ethnicity-based subgroups for each MSA and year. She also conducts a great deal of research on how setting-level characteristics (e.g., community-level stigma, discriminatory policies) predict setting-level and individual-level HIV outcomes.